PAW Escape - Team R
by Yonic
Summary: Life is simply not fair: Nine puppies were kidnapped by an unknown person known as 'Y', and have been forced by them to play a death game that will never end until, at least, six of them die. Follow the misadventures of the 3 puppies from Team R: Rocky, Zuma, and Robo-Dog here! An AU fic rated M for violence, and gore.
1. Dispersion

Author's Notes (reading very recommended):

 **This fanfic is divided in three parts, each one having a different perspective and featuring different characters.**

 **Team M:** Marshall, Skye and Tracker.

 **Team R:** Rocky, Zuma, and Robo-Dog.

 **Team C:** Chase, Rubble, and Everest.

In all of these three parts, the POV will be the narrator's.

These story _'parts'_ will occur simultaneously in the story. This means that _Chapter 1 of Team C_ will happen at the same time as _Chapter 1 of Team R_ and _Chapter 1 of Team M_ ; the same applies with Chapter 2, and so on. **Currently, you are in the Team R part of the story.**

This also means that the chapters that feature two or three of the Teams will appear on their respective parts. This very first chapter features all three of them, so it will be on the three parts. However, there will be differences on each part depending on the part you're on. These differences can range from just one word, to entire paragraphs, **so it is recommended to read all of the parts despite having repeated chapters.**

In this AU fanfic none of the characters know each other, except for Marshall and Skye, who happen to be childhood friends. Rubble and Tracker also are acquaintances, but nothing more than that.

Since this fic was written before Tracker officially debuted on the TV Series, his personality and traits might be a bit off, although I guess it's going to be okay since most of the characters' personalities will be very different.

 _Disclaimers: Story based on the Zero Escape game series. Cast based from PAW Patrol. Both of which I do not own._

* * *

 **[R] DISPERSION [1]**

It was too dark to see anything clearly, but it could be assumed that this was quite a small room, with a large barred door from which a light from a lamp could be seen.

The floor felt very cold and uncomfortable, like if it was made from pure, cold iron. Inside this very small room, where three dog puppies were inside. Two of them were sitting in front of the door, one of them was trying to break the bars.

"Come ooooon…!" said the one who was trying to pry open a passage between two of the bars. He opened his greenish yellow eyes and panted in exhaustion. His brown like chocolate fur was starting to sweat, and he had a very particular way of talking. "Just a little mowe!"

The dog that was sitting alongside the brown dog, looking down, gave a long sigh. "It won't work." Rolling his orange, sunset colored eyes, the dog was grey colored with a darker patch of fur around his left eye. "This is reinforced steel I presume. It won't budge that easily."

The grey mutt looked back at the dog that was sitting at the back of the room. It was still, seaming lifeless, staring deeply at the floor. It had quite the looks of a toy, made out of white, blue and orange parts. His eyes were just an LCD screen which showed cute, light blue eyes. "I don't even think that robot can help us."

The pair beside the door suddenly heard a male voice from the other side of the door. "That's a big problem." It was then when they took a look at what was beyond the door. There was a very small circled room that connected to two more rooms separated by barred doors similar to those on the room the dogs were in. Following the direction of the voice, they saw a small German Shepherd pup from behind one of the other two barred rooms.

"Another pup…? What is going here…?" The mutt had a confused look in his eyes.

"Barred doors, eerie and dark atmosphere; it's pretty obvious to tell we've been kidnapped." Answered the German Shepherd.

The chocolate Labrador widely opened his eyes in shock. Kidnapped? He didn't want to accept the facts: That sounded like a CSI thriller show. Furthermore, the Labrador didn't have any reason why he would be taken by someone he knew. Even he doesn't even know any of the faces he has seen here.

Speaking of which, more faces could be seen from the Shepherd's room. There was one figure that looked like a Bulldog sitting on the far corner of that prison cell, seemingly grunting. Beside him was a more feminine dog with a somewhat purple-lavender colored fur. The fur pattern suggested that she was a Husky with deep blue eyes.

"Dude, just how many pups awe thewe?" Asked the Labrador, deeply staring at the brown dog at the other room.

"From the looks of it, nine pups in total" The German answered gazing at the seemingly empty cell. "Three in my cell, three in your cell, and I presume there are other three in that one."

"Uh, what's wrong with your voice?" A voice could be heard from what seemed to be the empty room, then a white face speckled with black spots and icy blue eyes showed up. By the looks of it, seemed to be a Dalmatian. "And yes, we are nine in total."

The Labrador bit his lip. "Well... I kinda have a speech impediment, so..."

The mutt quickly responded, interrupting him. "Rhoticism, right? It's when you can't pronounce the R sound. Most of the times it sounds like if it were to be an W sound." The chocolate dog did nothing but speechlessly nod to him, with a surprised look.

There was a bit of silence, after the Cockapoo from the same cell as the Dalmatian appeared and broke it. "Maybe we should introduce ourselves, so we can know a bit about each other…" She put one of her paws to her chest, in a way of introducing herself. "My name is Skye. What are your names?"

One by one, the identities of each of the pups were revealed.

The Dalmatian was named Marshall, and the third dog that was held captive on the same cell as him and Skye was named Tracker. He was a Chihuahua with a Latin-American accent, which seemed to be Mexican.

Inside the German Shepherd's cell, whose name was Chase, were the rather buff yet young bulldog named Rubble and the lavender Husky named Everest. Her presence seemed to be quite cold, just like her name.

Finally, the grey mutt introduced himself as Rocky, and the chocolate Labrador as Zuma. However, the robot toy-like dog didn't seem to be listening to the conversation, as he wasn't answering.

"What about you, wobot dog?" Zuma decided to ask the robot himself. "What's youw name?"

The robot made a beeping sound, and his eyes turned into a spinning circle, which seemed to be like if it were to be 'processing' what he heard. In a matter of two seconds, some sounds could be heard from his bark. "Robo-Dog", he said. "Call me Robo, please."

There was a bit of an unsettling silence for a while, which made it easier for every pup to hear the footsteps coming from a hallway that connected to the prison vault. They seemed like footsteps from a human. "Oh, oh! Are we going to get rescued?" said Skye with a joyful smile.

However, the human's voice destroyed that positive thought. "Unfortunately, that's the wrong answer. Actually, I'm your enemy."

The bulldog, who had been silent all this time, spoke with a loud and low bark. "Who the hell are you?!"

The human seemed to be a man… Or not? It was hard to tell because he was wearing a dark robe with a theater 'laughter' mask. The voice seemed odd, as well, so it was very hard to determine their gender.

"You may call me Y. And I'll be your host of The Game." All of the pups were very confused. What did they mean?

Only Chase was brave enough to speak. "What game?", he replied in a very serious tone. The masked human took a few seconds governed by silence to answer. He then shows a coin that was hidden under his sleeve.

"Twenty-three days ago, a man was killed. As a result, a dog was falsely convicted to the murder and consequently sacrificed, his lawyer would later kill herself after realizing her mistake. A taxi driver had an accident along with his passenger, a vet surgeon. The puppy who awaited a critical operation also perished. The vet, due to his negligence, started a fire at his apartment, killing five people, including himself. Why did these nine people die? Because of a puppy. A single solitary puppy caused the deaths of nine people. Life is simply unfair; don't you think?"

Everyone was speechless. Nothing that the masked person just pouted out made any sense. Almost everyone who were close to the door tilt their heads in deep confusion.

"Today, the truth of these unfortunate events will be revealed, justice will finally be made, and the future will be decided. All of this will happen in The Game."

Despite Y's declaration, the pups still didn't understand what was going on, or what they've just heard. However, one thing was clear to them: They were going to play a game with the person who kidnapped them, and it would start very soon.

"I'll explain the rules of The Game now." The masked man announced as he showcased the white coin to everyone who was looking. The only ones who didn't see the coin were Robo and Everest; they weren't looking at the perpetrator, who after a few seconds proceeded to throw the coin.

The metal coin spun fast in the air, causing it to reveal its two sides. One was the white side that every pup could see. The other, which remained unknown to them, was black. With such spinning, it seemed like both colors were overlaying each other, forming a dark shade of gray. Black and white, imposing each other on each side, like light and darkness, but like a yin-yang, their destiny depended on each other.

Nevertheless, after the edge of the coin hit the floor, bouncing just one time, the man in black stepped on top of the spinning coin to stop it, hiding it under his foot.

"It is not possible to know which side was up and which one was down. But you can take a guess – in fact, you must take a guess." Said the evil human. "If you guess right, you will win the game and I will set you free."

That was very confusing, but very comforting. Zuma and Rocky let out a sigh of relief.

However, Chase was suspicious. "Are you serious you'll make me believe that?" He lowly growled.

Y looked at Chase. It was impossible to figure out the emotion behind Y's look, as it was completely hidden by the mask. The mask made them seem to be lifeless, emotionless, hopeless.

"You would sleep for twenty-three minutes and twenty-four seconds. After that, you would wake up back at the lookout in Adventure Bay as if nothing happened."

That was very specific statement. Chase still had his doubts, but he was interrupted by an impatient Rocky. "So what if we guess wrong? What if we lose?"

There was a short silence, but Y gave an emotionless response. "The game will not end until at least six of you die."

Everyone except Robo and Chase gasped. Rocky and Skye had a more shocked expression than the other pups. Chase maintained his serious look, whilst Robo's look was still lifeless. The masked man called Y opened his arms wide open.

"So, what it will be? Will it be white? Or black?"

* * *

The pups started arguing. Zuma, Marshall and Rubble took a wild guess right away and said their preferred option: "It's black!", "No, it's going to be white!", "It'll be white!"

Rocky, Skye and Tracker said that it was very risky, that there was a 50% chance of guessing right. Chase, Everest and Robo merely didn't say anything.

Y stopped the argument, taking the attention again, by yelling the name of a certain dog.

"...Chase. What's it going to be?" Y asked. "You will choose for the entire team. You have to."

Marshall and Zuma yelled: "Choose white!", "Choose black!", respectively, at the same time. The pups started yelling again, encouraging him to take a decision.

Rocky was deeply gazing at Chase, who started sweating due to the tense atmosphere and the riskiness of his choice. The Shepherd started looking frenetically at all dogs.

After a couple of dozens of seconds, Chase finally let an answer.

"...White."

The pups stopped quarreling, now deeply looking at him. Marshall didn't quite hear his answer: "Sorry, what?" He asked.

"...It's going to be _white_!" Chase yelled with determination and authority. He started clenching his teeth.

All of the pups now gazed at Y's foot. What they felt in a matter of seconds, which felt like minutes, were huge waves of pure fear and tension, despairingly hoping for the white side of the coin to be up. Their hearts were racing like they had never experienced. They were sweating heavily. Except for Robo, who was just emitting some smoke, apparently his body temperature was rising heavily.

There was just a fifty percent chance that the shiny, light white side of the coin would be up. At first it seemed like a very high chance of that they would guess it right. However, now that Chase gave an answer, that number seemed to be very small. It seemed like it would be more likely that the cold and dark black side of the coin would be up.

Every pup in the metallic cell rooms felt like their heart skipped a beat when the foot of the dark man started revealing the coin…

The side that was up… was black.

It seemed like time returned back to normal. Rocky, Zuma and Tracker gave out a huge gasp, with shocked eyes. Marshall had a somewhat grossed-out kind of look. Rubble and Skye deeply stared at Chase, with a very angered expression. The German Shepherd looked down, with a very guilty expression. Everest looked sad after hearing the dogs' reaction. Robo started beeping, like he was yelping in shock.

"Damn you, Chase!" The bulldog Rubble cursed the Shepherd, hitting his back paws on the floor.

That wasn't right for Rocky. "Don't blame him!" He replied to Rubble. "There was a 50% of chance of getting it right. We were just… Unlucky."

Silence, again, apart from the constant beeps of Robo. Rubble, annoyed, let out a huge roar. "Tell that iron dog to shut the fuck up!"

The beeps were gone. One second after that, Y finally spoke again.

"You have lost the coin toss. Therefore, The Game will continue until at least six of you are dead." The masked man revealed from the sleeve where the coin was not hidden in, a remote with a yellow button. "Now, it is time for you to sleep. When next you wake, I will keep explaining the rules of The Game."

Marshall extended one paw, passing through the metallic gate, but it was way too short to reach the masked man's legs. Despite that, he yelled. "W-wait! This can't be over ye-"

A click could be heard. That evil masked man pushed the yellow button. Half a second after that, he mentioned his last words before turning back, heading straight to the dark hallway.

"Sleep well, pups."

Hissing sounds came from above the center of the room. It looked like it was coming from a circular hole that no puppy had noticed before, at the ceiling of the circular center room.

Suddenly, Rocky and Zuma started feeling tired. Their legs shook, feeling weak. Eyelids half closed, Zuma stretched his paw, trying to get to the lock of the metal grate. "D-damn you, Y..." Those were his last words before falling asleep.

Rocky managed to hold his need for sleep a little longer. He took a look at the room, it seemed like a bunch of puppies had succumbed to slumber, too. The mutt then gazed at Robo. He didn't have those cute blue-ish eyes anymore, and looked even more dead than it was before. So it seemed like, even for a dog machine, whatever caused them to fall asleep also affected him in a way.

The grey dog's eyelids started feeling very heavy, and his legs didn't seem like they would be able to hold his weight anymore. Even if he never gave up, he eventually fell asleep, putting him in a long slumber.


	2. Injection

Author's Note:

Chapters 2 and 3 will be updated according to this order:

 **Team M - Team R - Team C**

* * *

 **[R] INJECTION [2]**

"Wocky, wake up!" a masculine, yet very distinctive voice echoed through the mutt's ears.

The sleepy dog rolled over, now laying down the floor. Stretched his paws and scratched his fur. The floor felt cold and dirty. Upon opening his eyes, he saw a chocolate Labrador's face with olive eyes from up close. He could feel the heated air that came from his nose.

"Oh, Zuma." He got on all fours, scratching his head with his back paw. "Did Y make us sleep...?"

Trying to remember what happened before falling asleep, the Labrador nodded. "The only thing I can remember was a very strange smell."

"Sleeping gas..." Rocky rolled his eyes, thinking the most possible reason. Then he thought of something, or rather, someone in particular. "Hey, where's Robo?"

Both pups took a look around the room they were in. They seemed to be in some sort of sewer, or a small heater room, since the room was covered with a complex network of pipes of different sizes and shades of grey, green and brown. Some of them had rusty marks, and it seemed like a certain pipe on the ceiling was leaking water from the dripping sound that could be heard in a slow, but almost constant pace. That sound was annoying Rocky quite a lot. Also, there was a lightbulb hanging on the ceiling thanks to the cable that connects the bulb from the power network, being the seemingly lone light source from this room, but it was enough to see across the entire area.

However, to one of the wide sides on the room, there was a very rusty iron table with a TV screen powered on. The TV screen was displaying the room that seemed to be on the other side of the rusty, metallic and rough door to the left of the table. No matter how much they tried, it wouldn't budge.

On the other side of the room, a metal grating could be seen close to the floor, which looked like it was connecting to a ventilation duct. Despite not moving, it seemed the right size for the pups to squeeze through the hole.

The mutt was trembling, but it wasn't because he was cold. In fact, there was heat coming from the ventilation conduit. "I-I don't like this place, Zuma..."

"Me too, dude. This place is way too cweepy. I think I can see Wobo thewe." Zuma pointed his paw below the table, covering his visor with his paws, trembling.

Zuma got closer to the metallic dog. "Don't wowwy Wobo, we awe going to be ok. We'll be in a safew place soonew than you think!"

Robo removed his paws from his head, with his LED eyes showing a rather sad look. It walked out of the table, hugging both the Labrador and the mixed breed dog tightly.

"Hey buddy, it's ok. Are you afraid of something, perhaps?" Rocky thought that he might've seen something that could have scared him. All pups have something to be afraid of, according to him.

"I don't... Like rusty places..." For the first time in a long while, Robo spoke some words.

"Wust? Well I'd get it if I wewe a wobot, I guess..."

Rocky held the hug with the robotic pup, comforting him with soft caresses on his head. It was then when he noticed the green wristband tied on his own left front paw.

"What's this...? Is it a clock?" The bracelet bore a circular display with two buttons on their sides. The mutt's white paws pressed both of those buttons, but nothing happened. Zuma checked he had the same device as Rocky's, which wasn't working as well.

The artificial dog took a look at his left paw. There seemed to be a circular display just like Rocky's bracelet, but there was no strap holding it. It seemed like it was integrated directly into its circuits.

Despite Robo feeling a bit better, the TV suddenly shone a white and black static with a very high noise. A second after that, the shadowy figure of a masked man appeared on the screen.

"It appears you have awaken." Said Y, with the same screeching, distorted voice as before. "Time to explain the rules to you."

"Y...!" Said Rocky, with a death stare pointed straight to Y's hidden face.

The perpetrator mentioned they had to make some things clear before explaining the rules. "Asking questions to me will be worth nothing but a waste of time. This is a recording, being broadcasted to all of the dogs within this facility."

Now that the kidnapper clarified that first thing, they announced that they would detail a fragment of the story that the puppies heard back at the prison cells.

"July 19th, 2013, it was a rainy day. A man was getting home from work. His usual route led him to a fork in the road within a park. Normally, he'd go through the left path, but for some reason, he chose the right path that day. Along the way, he bumped into a woman who happened to be a coworker.  
Surprised to see him, she asked: 'Why did you come this way today'?  
The man showed her what was hiding under his coat. It was a small puppy, with bloody stains from gunshot wounds. It was clear the puppy was in peril, so he decided to head towards the closest vet in the neighborhood."

"A puppy got shot...?" Zuma stared at Rocky, inspecting while sat on the cold floor the body of the hybrid mutt, in case he could spot a gunshot scar, but didn't seem to be any, not even one in an advanced state of healing.

The voice of Y grew deeper and resonated the following words. "His body was found two hours and four minutes later. Murdered. They found him behind some bushes along the right path of the park. Sometimes, life is simply unfair..."

 _"Could he have been shot, too...?"_ Rocky tried to make a recollection of what Y had told them earlier. However, it was clear that the culprit wasn't a human; according to Y's previous words, a dog was convicted for it. _"Then... who?"_

The kidnapper continued their explanations. "It's the same for all of you puppies. The pull of an unjust fate carried you along to this precise moment. Only to find yourselves in this underground facility, 30 meters below ground..."

The screen showed up a complex map with many rooms intricately networked by what looked like meandering hallways. It was so distorted in shape that it felt like a ruined spider web lair of some sort.

* * *

"As you can probably see from where you are, you have been divided into three groups of three dogs each." Y explained that the groups were distributed as follows:

Marshall, Skye and Tracker were the now named **Team M**. The leader of the group would be Marshall, as hinted by the initial of the team. The team was given red-colored bracelets.

Rocky, Zuma and Robo were **Team R** , with Rocky being the leader. Team R was given green-colored bracelets.

Finally, Chase, Rubble and Everest had been associated the name Team C. The color of the bracelets from this team was blue.

"Speaking of the bracelets, there are some important things to mention about them. As of now, each of everyone's bracelets is inactive. You will need to activate them by using a circle scanner that can be found near your TV screen. Simply pass your paws over the reader to enable their functions. This is very important for The Game to happen."

The screen switched again, showing a schematic of a bracelet similar to those Team M wear, but yellow-colored. The puppy was staring deeply to his bracelet device.

"Once activated, you can press the two buttons on its sides simultaneously for an arrow to be displayed. This arrow will serve you as a guide to where you will have to go next. Consider it as a compass."

Skye turned around, looking for that scanner nearby, although she was still capable of listening to the explanations of Y's doomed Game rules.

"The bracelets are absolutely necessary to enter the Numbered Doors. As of now, you probably haven't seen any. They just look like any regular door, but they present a colored number splattered on them. Near these doors, you will find the devices called Bracelet Authentication Devices, or BREAD, for short. You must scan your paws over these devices in order to activate the X-Paws Input Device beside the BREAD. The Numbered Door will not open unless you enter the same amount of X-Pawsses as the number painted on the door."

Zumma giggled with a short snort. "Ha, ha, Pawsses."

However, the voice of the masked man suddenly turned even darker after the next sentence.

"Each time one of you puppies is unable to continue the Game, the bracelet will automatically disengage and an X-Pawss will be revealed. In blunter terms, there will be an X-Pawss for each dead puppy."

The robo dog made a yelling sound, and coiled back to a corner on the room. Zuma gave the evil masked human a death stare. "Not cool, dude... Not cool." Rocky just kept listening.

"It is hidden, but an exit can be found. Seek a way out... Seek a door that carries a [6]. This obviously means that, at least, six of you must die in order to open the door that connects to the exit of this facility."

"So that's why he meant The Game won't end until six of us die." Uttered Rocky.

"There's a few things to mention about their interaction with the bracelets, as well. Each Numbered Door will only remain open for 24 seconds. Once that time passed, the Numbered Doors will automatically close. By then, any puppy that did not authenticate on the BREAD, but managed to pass through it, the injectors hidden within their bracelet will automatically trigger. The trespasser will be penalized by an injection of an aqueous solution of mercuric chloride. Once that happens, the digestive tract will collapse due to the poison, killing you in about 23 minutes."

"What does that mean?" The chocolate Labrador looked at the grey mutt with dark fur spots.

"I presume it is to keep us from cheating and enter places we're not supposed to." Replied Rocky.

"Also, don't expect the Numbered Doors from opening again. Once they close, they will remain locked until those who have last opened the door authenticate in the Door Unlocking Device, or DUD. Only then the rest will be able to open said door."

Both Rocky and Zuma tilted his head in confusion. _"Is that rule necessary...?"_ , thought the mixed breed dog.

"I believe that concludes the rules explanations. Remember that I can't answer your questions."

However, despite Y having explained the rules, he added one more last thing to his explanations:

"Sometimes, you will encounter different challenges. Only fate will only decide whether if you overcome it... Or not. With that... I wish you... Good luck."

* * *

Y waved goodbye, with a "Have a nice escape". Robo made a very strange noise, that sounded like he was cursing someone. The TV screen turned back to showing a camera footage of the room behind the door.

The puppies stood silent for a couple of seconds, when the rusty door suddenly opened.

"The door... Is open." Stated the robotic dog. "I suggest going through it... And find the device for activating the bracelets."

Both dogs agreed to that notion. Going through that door, the puppies went through the corridor that was being shown by the camera. It didn't take long before the three puppies gazed at the circular device that was bolted to one of the walls, about the size of their heads.

"This must be the device for the bwacelets." Said Zuma, placing a paw over the circular surface. The wrist watch made a short beep, and the display lit up, showing a green arrow heading towards the corner of the corridor. Rocky and Robo followed suit. Their bracelets were showing the same arrows, pointing towards the same direction. "Let's go, dudes!"

They followed the meandering corridor, seemingly following the same direction of where the pipes on the walls were heading to. After about half a minute trotting, they stumbled upon the end of the corridor, entering a circular and dark tunnel. Robo led the way using his light torch to see the way they should be heading to. At the end of it, two lights illuminated the round sliding door that was in front of the puppies.

It seemed rather special, not because of its huge size or the golden plaque with (B-2) inscribed on it, but the presence of the green number [0] painted over the whole door.

"A numbered door...?" Asked Robo-Dog, upon first gazing the number.

The mutt was looking directly at the circular device that was stick to the curved wall because of the taped wires that connected it to the power supply. "Definitely. What's good is that is a number that we can open right away!" He placed his white paw onto the circular reader of the device. "No X-Pawsses are required."

Zuma twisted his lips in a very wide smile, wagging his tail happily. The robotic puppy was happily jumping. They both proceeded to place their paws on the reader. First Zuma, then Robo. However, the door labeled with a green [0] didn't open.

"Awe you suwe we can just go... Wocky?" said Zuma.

Robo noticed a small indentation appearing in front of the [0] door. "I suppose this is the X-Pawss input device?"

"Why would such thing be in here?" Rocky took a look inside the indentation. There was a keyboard fit for his paws' size and a line of nine small LCD displays over it, which would display the X-Pawsses that have been inputted. "Well, the door isn't necessarily waiting any X-Pawss, so I suppose I can just enter this completely blank."

The white and gray paw just pressed the "Enter" key. The indentation metallic cover slowly closed, and right after that, the metallic door started steadily opening, making a rusty metallic noise as it was being lifted from the ground.

When the gap was big enough, Zuma squeezed through it, with Rocky following shortly after. Since Robo was a bit bigger than the other two, it had to wait a little more time before finally getting in.

The room that was behind door [0] was much bigger than the one they started their journey. The pups exited from one of the many pipe tunnels that connected the room that seemed to be the sewers. However, the canal from which water would usually flow was empty.

Zuma, Rocky and Robo followed the passageway to the left until they bumped to a corner. To the other side of the corner there was a small metallic door, however the gap from the canal was too big for any of the pups to jump to the other side and check it. The robotic dog claimed to have reactors on his paws that allowed him to hover, but they stopped working for some reason.

Despite that, there was a reachable door that was opened. They checked out the very small room, which had an opening on the wall, allowing to see the sewer from them. "It could be some sort of service stand or a room for watching the sewers", said Zuma after exiting that location. Beside the door there was a small portable table with four metallic, portable chairs as well. Robo also noticed that there are stairs down to the water canal. Zuma went down to investigate, even though he first thought that "thewes pwobably nothing hewe".

Zuma found a huge hatch door at the wall in front of him just after heading downstairs. He noticed it wasn't locked, but wasn't particularly sure of opening it. The water could go straight towards him and fatally being drifted away by the stream.

When he looked up, he saw a shocked, scared, winced expression on both of the other pups' faces. The Labrador tilted his head in confusion, but he thought they were probably scared of the electronic hatch to suddenly open, so he decided to go upstairs again.

* * *

While looking back at the observation room, Robo-Dog found a circular device that looked similar to the BREAD, however, it was white-colored instead of black-colored, and featured a silver bread motif on top instead of a gold one.

"Zuma, Rocky, is this the DUD?" Robo asked the pups to come over.

The chocolate Labrador quickly inspected the device. "Well it has a bread on it but it's not the BREAD. So it must be a dud." He chuckled. "Ha, ha, ha, ha, DUD."

The mutt squeezed in so he could take a gaze onto the device. Y's words resonated within his head.

 _"Also, don't expect the Numbered Doors from opening again. Once they close, they will remain locked until those who have last opened the door authenticate in the Door Unlocking Device, or DUD. Only then the rest will be able to open said door."_

"I weally don't get the point of the DUD. Why do we have to unlock a doow we'll nevew go thwough again?" Zuma backed out, making space for Rocky to get closer. "It'd be pointless..."

"That is true, however... Personally, I think we should unlock it. Maybe the point of this is to let us choose to block the way through so nobody can continue. I don't want to let them behind."

"I donno dude, if we leave them to theiw demise we can be the fiwst thwee pups to get to the doow numbew [6]. We might not have a bettew chance wight now!"

To Rocky's mind, both of them had a point. They could just do what Zuma says and ignore the DUD, leaving every pup besides them to their demise. That would be a quick way of getting the X-Pawsses... Or not?

He thought about it for a while, while listening to both of them quarreling. Technically, they would have to wait until everyone of them starved or died out of dehydration. Plus, he didn't take into account that they might find both water and food to live with for a couple months. That didn't seem like an effective way of escaping.

However, he cut his line of thought when he heard the voice of the other two pups. "Rocky!"

"W-What?" He answered.

"Rocky, we think you should be the one who chooses what should we do." Stated Robo.

"Since you awe the leadew of Team aw..." Continued Zuma.

There was a short silence, after which the mutt nodded and turned around, facing the DUD. He had to choose between ignoring the device, or authenticate on it in order to unlock the numbered door.

But there was nothing to do; he had already chosen what to do.

"Let's authenticate and unlock the door."

The Chocolate lab switched his glare from a concerned face to a more disappointed one. "Why, Wocky?"

Rocky rapidly explained his reasons. "If we leave them to their demise, we'd have to wait for them to die, which might take long depending on the resources they could have. Plus, there might be other doors that they could go through, so we can't guarantee that we'll be getting those X-Pawsses." He extended his paw onto the DUD, about to authenticate his bracelet onto it. "But above that... I want to get here with everyone. No casualties. There has to be a way around this without dropping blood."

After that, the mutt placed his paw on the DUD, making a beeping sound. The DUD suddenly displayed the number 32, and going down by one each second. "Wait, what? A c-countdown!? Quick, authenticate, you two!"

The other two pups had a shocking expression. Zuma had his eyes wide open, while Robo's pupils were like tiny dots. They quickly set off to authenticate, so quickly they placed their paws at the same time. After a small chime, the screen on the DUD turned off. The three pups laid down on the floor, completely exhausted and confused.

"Why... Why was thewe a countdown?" Asked the olive eyed Labrador.

"The question actually is... Why didn't Y mention about the countdown?" The mechanical dog corrected Zuma.

Silence. Zuma took some time to tilt his head, after giving up thinking a reason why he'd hide that. He simply uttered that whatever would happen if the countdown reached zero, it wouldn't be good.

Rocky brought up the previous conversation topic. "I think I have a great idea on how to reduce the number of victims."

* * *

While the other two pups were watching, sitting on the chairs, Rocky held a screwdriver on his mouth while closely examining his bracelet. He then laid the tool with an orange handle on the portable table.

"Yeah, I think we can do this..." Rocky started explaining. "While I can't say for sure about the mechanisms inside these, I can assure that my bracelet and Zuma's feature electronic locks, most likely connected to a biometric power source."

"Biometwic powew souwce?" Zuma tilted his head in confusion, yet again. Those terms seemed alien to him.

"Our hearts generate electric pulses while pumping blood to our bodies, just like every other dog. I'm guessing this bracelet is catching those pulses and use them as electric power."

"That means, if we cut the power source, we'll be able to deactivate the bracelets?" deduced Robo.

"Exactly. In mine and Zuma's case, that'd mean that our heart must stop. In order words, we would need to have a heart attack, or die, for the bracelet to be unpowered and the electronic lock to disengage." He got up and approached the robotic dog. "Robo's case is different. It may probably have some power core within it, like a 'heart'. If we were to shut it down, Robo's bracelet will shut down. But I believe it is integrated within its circuits, so it wouldn't come off. Although I don't think being able to get rid of the bracelets is going to be a matter of issue as of now."

"What do you mean by that?" Zuma started understanding Rocky, but not completely.

Rocky was slowly inspecting Robo's body as he talked. "In order to check our state, it's very likely The Game's systems use our bracelets to keep track on how we are doing. If a bracelet's power gets off... The Game would treat the bearer as 'dead'."  
He then stopped, when he found four small screws, and a large one at the center, on the robot's back. "We could trick the system this way by cutting down the connection between the bracelets and the power source. I don't know how to do it for us real, organic pups. As of Robo, though..." The mutt placed his white paw on the panel that surrounded the four smaller screws with a larger one in the middle. "We just have to turn its power source off, and turn it back on!"

"I see..." Uttered the metallic dog, with the LCD screen configured to give out a rather sad, but acknowledged look. "By turning the power from my core off, the bracelet will deactivate and the Game systems will think that I'm dead."

"Now that's a mowe compwehensible explanation!" Replied Zuma.

Rocky gave an annoyed look to Zuma for half a second. Then looked back at Robo. "I'm not going to force you to be powered off, but I think this is the best we can do for now. We can reduce the casualties down to 5 for now."

For some strange reason, Rocky wanted to yell _"Don't lose it, reuse it!"_. He mentally chuckled, remembering his happier days as an eco-friendly mechanic.

The non-organic puppy explained its thoughts. "Rest assured, it is going to be a risky maneuver... There might be a chance that I may not be able to power up again. And I suppose that I can't be turned on while still inside The Game, as the systems will think of me as 'alive' again... I don't want to know what would happen then..."

"So, you don't want to do it?" Supposed the chocolate Labrador. There was a short silence afterwards.

"However, I think the same as Rocky. I... I don't want to leave anyone behind. We should get out of here... Together. That'd make me... Very happy."

"Good!" Rocky happily sat back to his chair. "Unfortunately, I can't do anything as of now. I don't have the proper tools to uncover the power switch panel."

Zuma wondered why wasn't there an on/off switch just like any kind of electronic toy, but never mentioned the question since he thought it wasn't time for asking that. Instead, he asked:

"So... What should we do next?"

* * *

After searching the sewers up to where they were able to reach, the three pups headed downstairs to the water canal. It was quite darker than the hallways from the floor above them, so they used the robotic pup's torch to examine the canal. Just below what would be the gap between the door that was out of reach and the walkway with a lineup of pipe tunnels, were two open wooden crates. They seemed to be light, but they had something inside.

"These boxes have nothing but a bit of sand in them." said Zuma, inspecting the contents of them. They opened nice and easy, with a small creak sound, but the lid easily slid through.

"Maybe we can use these as platforms..." Guessed the mutt, nervously looking at the hatch door. "...If we could to fill the water canal..."

The brown dog complimented the dog with a dark fur patch around his left eye. "You suwe are smawt. You know a lot about tech stuff."

In a very modest look, Rocky replied. "Ah, it's nothing. My family are mechanics and I was... Well, educated with that. I even have my own toolkit back home."

As Zuma howled a "Wow, cool dude!", the trio approached the electronic hatch valve door. It seemed unlocked and ready to be opened by using a lever attached to the wall. Cables ran across the circular shape of the door until reaching the top, that connected the lever with the hatch door. Rocky felt very nervous for some strange reason.

"You OK buddy?" Zuma patted Rocky's head and wrapped his right paw to the mutt's right shoulder.

"Y-y-yeah. It's j-just I feel cold... It's q-quite c-cold down here..." Rocky wasn't shivering because of cold. He was shivering of fear, for some reason he decided to hid. "L-let's go...!"

Rocky's white paw drew closer to the lever. His heartbeat was skyrocketing, and began to sweat all over the body, despite the other dogs just being able to see he was shivering quite a lot. While shutting his eyelids close, he eventually pulled his paw down, along with the lever, in order to open the door.

The door quickly opened, revealing the room behind it...

* * *

 **STATUS  
** (According to Team R's perspective)

 **Team M:  
** Marshall (?), Skye (?), Tracker (?)

 **Team R:  
** Rocky (ALIVE), Zuma (ALIVE), Robo (ALIVE)

 **Team C:  
** Chase (?), Rubble (?), Everest (?)


	3. Water

Author's Notes:

This Chapter 3 will involve the first Death Minigames! Will the pups survive the challenges?

Team R's first Death Minigame was the hardest one to write because I had no idea of what puppies would be on the verge of death, so I'm sorry it took a bit longer than expected. I decided to give a bit of nostalgia to those who have played _9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors_ , the first game of the _Zero Escape_ series.

Also, since Tracker made his debut at _"Tracker Joins the Pups!"_ the day before yesterday, I also have updated the cover of Team M with his face.

* * *

 **[R] WATER [3]**

Rocky gave a silent sigh of relief after glaring at the newly opened room in front of him. It was, in a sense, a fairly lit small room filled with pipes of a quite large size. On the one that was beside Zuma was a note that read out "Please restore the water system to this section of the facility." There was also another blast door to the opposite side of where the pups entered. However, the valve to open the door was missing. To the left there was also a glass door of a shower...

"What is a showew doing in hewe?" Wondered Zuma in doubt. He suddenly heard a sudden loud noise coming from the hatch they came from. "What the... It closed!"

While Robo approached the door, he noticed that the valve was locked in place. "We can't open it. The hydraulics have stopped working."

Rocky had a very worried look, but he knew that he had to keep confident for the team. "That means we need to restore the water system, or else we'll be stuck in here..."

Zuma glared at the worried mutt with a short frown, then sighed. "I have a vewy bad feeling about this."

Robo cheered up both of the organic puppies. "Don't worry, pups. We'll get out of this safely. I think..."

"You think? We need to stay confident. We'll get out for sure!" replied Rocky, trying to keep his self-esteem up. "Let's seek a way out!"

Thus, the three dogs started looking around the room again.

* * *

Zuma looked inside the shower room. It was clear enough that it was too small for more than one pup to fit, but there was a red suitcase with a circular hole near the handle, which was awaiting the presence of a magnetic key so that the case could be open. He noticed that the door wouldn't go up the ceiling, leaving a small gap at the top. The glass door felt sturdy enough to hold a couple of kicks without breaking.

The robotic dog inspected the console that was next to the door. It couldn't boot up, he guessed because there was no power running on it. However, it was clearly connected to the blast door they came through.

The gray pup was looking at the pipes. While placing an ear on the ones with blue paint on them, he could hear water running like blood going down a stream vessel. The dark red ones gave him a more hissing sound, but it was very faint. It seemed like gas, but it was less than usual.

"This gas condensed into water..." Concluded Rocky. He also noticed that there was a small valve on one of the red pipes, with a small exhaustion pipe connected to it. Just above it was a water pipe that were covered with white crystals that were very cold to the touch. "I see... The water pipes are frozen. That's why the water system has been blocked!"

"Isn't that weiwd? I don't feel cold at all..." Replied Zuma.

"Currently, there are 53ºF." It was fairly warm, but not too comfortably warm. "That ice must be some sort of... Water polymorph."

"What are you talking about, Robo?"

"A polymorph is a substance with the same composition of another, but with a different molecular structure. Just like diamonds and graphite. Have you heard of Ice-9, Rocky?" The metallic dog replied to the mutt, who shook his head. "Kurt Vonnegut wrote about a substance that was essentially ice, but couldn't melt at room temperature. You know water melts at 32ºF, right?"

Both pups nodded, while still looking around the room. "Well, Ice-9 is supposed to have a melting point much higher than that. About 114ºF, to be precise. Maybe that ice over there..."

"Could it be Ice-9?" Questioned Zuma.

The robotic dog made a chuckling sound. "No, fortunately that only exists in fiction. However, there could be water that acts in a similar way like it, so... In a way, it could be ice that doesn't melt at room temperature."

Rocky stopped for a while, glaring at the solid water around the tube. "How can we heat this up, then...? If only we could enter the boiler room or something..."

Zuma the chocolate pup bumped onto a lever that was below a pipe, moving it down. A small indentation below it appeared and a bunch of stones dropped down from it. "Whoa, watch it!"

The gray mutt heard the rubble sound and gazed at the rocks that fell down the indentation. Upon placing his head onto the very tight ventilation system, Rocky saw traces of sand, which was very strange to the dog's comprehension. Despite that, he had an idea.

"I'll grab two of these!" With two rocks being held inside his mouth, which were actually very disgusting, he carried over the rocks at the fuse cord that seemed to be connected to a flame ring of some sort he found just below one of the gas pipes. "I might be able to light this up..."

Like if he was a prehistoric monkey, he smashed both of the rocks, making a crackling sound. "Come on...!" A slight sparkle quickly appeared and land onto the fuse, causing it to light up. The spark gently moved following the fuse rope until reaching the ring, causing a small flame to appear. "Yes! Now I can heat up the gas again!"

After a short while, the gas that was heated up started making a louder hissing sound. The gas was running fine now. However, a female announcing something quite ominous resonated on each one of the pup's ears.

"Gas current has reached sufficient temperature. Incineration process will begin now according to the protocol."

The screen on the terminal close to the door lit up, showing footage of two particular rooms. The three pups decided to check out what was happening.

The footage was split in two parts, the left one showed what looked like a control room. Inside it, there were two puppies that were laying down on the floor, with their eyes closed. The right one displayed a much darker room, with just a small strip of light. However, there was a Cockapoo pup that was just like the other two pups on display: Laying down the floor, eyes shut.

"Dude, it's Team M!" Reacted Zuma, shaking his paws. "Are they... Dead?"

"No, take a look at Skye." Said Robo while placing one of his mechanical paws to where she is being displayed, or rather, was. "She just woke up."

Soon after, the other two puppies woke up. They could hear what they said on the footage of Chase and Tracker, but not on Skye's side.

 _"This room is..."_

 _"A trash disposal room. At least that's what it looks like."_

"Hold on, a trash disposal room!?" Rocky suddenly got very scared, his pupils shrinking while his eyeballs grew in surprise. "T-that's an incinerator!"

"Then, that means...!" Continued Zuma, but he was interrupted by the female announcer mentioning something from the terminal.

 _"Incinerator startup... Will now commence. Incineration in... Thirty-two minutes."_

"Oh, no! Rocky, what you just did was...!?" Robo was very shocked.

The mutt had a guilty look in his face, looking down. His shabby tail pointing to the floor as well. "I just... Wanted to heat up the gas so I could use it to..." His speech was cut short by a knocking sound, like if a hammer was hitting the pipes. Rocky's ears twitched.

"Oh shit!" Swore the mutt, rushing through were the sounds came from "Oh, no... I can't drain this on time!"

"Calm down, Wocky! What's happening!?" Zuma yelled at the pup with a concerned look.

"A water hammer... I think it's going to start a chain reaction! Everyone, take cover! And stay away from the gas pipes!"

Rocky's first instinct was to head directly towards the shower room, trying to squeeze in Zuma, however, he wouldn't fit even if he was on top of the dog, so he hid below a water pipe that was at the side. Robo just stayed behind the terminal.

As the hammer knocks increased in volume and speed, a bubbling sound was added to the mix of noises. The gas pipes started compressing. And a few seconds later, a bursting sound roared the room, as a piece of a gas pipe flew by, hitting the ceiling and getting smashed into pieces. A huge burst of very hot water came out of the pipe at an amazingly big pressure, causing even more explosions and damaging the water pipes. Despite the ice being now melt, a huge stream of water started pouring on the room, causing it to start filling up.

* * *

"Shit! What have you done Wocky!?" Zuma opened his eyes that were firmly shut, and gazed at the glass door, that managed to stay firmly intact. Beneath the glass door, that somehow survived the explosion, was a mutt in a deep, traumatized position, with his green eyes with a despair pretty tiny size. He was panting very hard, shaking, sweating; he couldn't move at all.

"Water... Water... WATER!" Howled the mutt. His eyes started to look wet. "T-the room's filling up... We're gonna drown! WE'RE GOING TO DROWN!" He curled up on the floor, with his fur chickening up in fear.

Zuma was going to open the door, but Rocky wouldn't let him. "DON'T YOU DARE TO OPEN THE DOOR! I don't want to get w-wet...!"

The chocolate Labrador then looked at the shower room, and noticed how it seemed to magically stay dry despite the rest of the area begin filling up with water. "H-hey, listen up Wocky! Stay in thewe! We'we going to twy to open the hatch doow! I pwomise you won't get wet!"

He didn't reply. Rocky was still curled up in fear, crying. Then he simply said. "Help me..."

The brown puppy looked at the robotic dog, surprised he was still live and running. "Awen't you scawed of watew?"

Robo shook his head. "I am only afraid to getting rusty. My outer shell is made in a way so I'm waterproof." Zuma merely giggled to that statement. "Anyway, let's find a way out!"

By that time, **the water was already reaching their foot paws**.

"Wait, the doow needed watew to open, wight?" Asked Zuma to the robot.

"Yes, it needs a supply of water. But fortunately, I think the terminal and the door are connected to an auxiliary supply of water, now that I look at it."

"So doing this was pointless?"

"Not really, remember the ice? It was blocking the water from that stream. Melting it caused the water that comes this way flowing again."

"Wight..." Sighed Zuma, feeling defeated. However, he noticed something red floating at the water, that was slowly rising. "Hey, what's this?"

He grabbed it up with his mouth. It was a red key! Both Zuma and Robo looked at each other, while thinking where could it be used. After both nodding simultaneously, they glared at the mutt, that had stopped crying, but had a very desperate look. He was still very tense due to the room flooding up.

"Rocky. It's me, Robo... We need your help..." Mentioned Robo, being caring to the shocked dog.

"I'm not getting out of here." A childish, shocked Rocky replied to his request.

"We don't need you out! Can you open the suitcase on the showew woom and look at what's inside? Please?" Zuma jumped, as he tossed the red key towards the gap from the glass door, so that it passed over it and fell inside the shower cabinet.

He didn't budge at all. Robo tried to be careful choosing his words in order to cheer him up. "I know you don't like water, but right now we need your help in order to get rid of this situation. We need your courage. We need you to move and open that suitcase so we can escape!"

Rocky shed out some more tears, before getting up. "I... I can do this..." He was still shaking quite a lot, very afraid, he quickly picked the key and used it to unlock the suitcase. He was still dried up, although this wasn't the same for the other pups. **The water has already reached their knees by that point**.

He placed the red key after many shaking tries into the rectangular slot. He quickly twisted it, and the spring within the lock caused the lid of the suitcase to open. It wasn't full to his eyes. Six keycards, three blue with the numbers 1, 2 and 3, and three red with 6, 7, and 8 emblazoned on them. There was also a strange card reader device with a manual on its back. The mutt took the handbook out of the card reader, reading its contents.

* * *

 _DIGITAL ROOT READER MANUAL_

 _The Digital Root Reader (DRR) contains a hidden compartment that can be unlocked when the digital root matches the number displayed on the screen._

 _Only a 3-digit number will be able to unlock the device._

 _Compute a digital root with the following steps:_

 _1\. Add all the digits that make up the number in question._

 _2\. Repeat step 1 with the resulting number until you get a single-digit number._

 _EX-1. The digital root of 789 would be:_

 _7+8+9 = 24_

 _2+4 = [6]_

 _Therefore, the digital root of 789 is [6]._

 _EX-2. The digital root of 7799 would be:_

 _7+7+9+9 = 32_

 _3+2 = [5]_

 _Therefore, the digital root of 7799 is [5]._

 _Quirks:_

 _a. The digital root of a single-digit number is itself._

 _b. 0 and 9 are digital root identities: If you add them to any number, they will not alter their digital number. (1+2+3 = 6; 1+2+3+9 = 15, 1+5 = 6; 1+2+3+0 = 6)_

 _c. Any number whose digital root is 3, 6 or 9 is divisible by 3._

* * *

The instructions seemed clear to the mutt, but he wasn't still calm enough to think. He stood there for a couple of seconds, until he heard a mechanical voice: "Rocky!", to which he turned around to where it came from.

"What's wwong?" asked the Labrador. "Did you find anything, Wocky?"

"Y-yeah... I think... I think so... But I can't..." Answered the mutt in a depressed way, mumbling the last word, impossible for the others to hear.

"I don't want to be wude, but you'we taking it a bit too slow... **We can't stand on the floow anymowe**!"

He didn't continue speaking, just turning around again. He bit his lip so hard, it felt a bit painful. He tried to concentrate on what he was doing. Not remembering what happened in the past. Not remembering what occurred that traumatic day... Forgetting what transpired back then...

 _"Rocky, it's bath time!"_

A voice kept echoing his head, making him shook it in despair. "No... No, I don't want to remember that!" He felt so scared, he couldn't handle himself. He couldn't control his inner muscles anymore, while a short, yellowish colored liquid squirted from the thing between his back paws. It was very faint, but hot. And a bit smelly.

The other pups saw it as a small speckle of shiny light, but when they noticed the smell, they both reacted in different ways. Zuma made a gagging face, while Robo whimpered, trying to guess that whatever Rocky had on its head, it had to be horrible.

"D-damn you..." mumbled the poor mutt. He tried to buckle up his fear, closing his eyes and pressing the power button of the device. A long beep echoed the shower room, and a number [5] was displayed on the screen. _"Five... A digital root of five..."_ thought Rocky, deeply staring at the cards.

1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8. What number could he make whose digital number was [5]?

He gave out a long breath, trying to relax and concentrate on the problem he had on his paws. It was no question that he had an intelligence well above the average, but he had especial trouble at concentrating at something. He turned at the door. **About a quarter of the room in front of him was already filled with water**. Panicked, he turned back at the suitcase.

"Come on, Rocky!" cheered Robo, while being in front of the panel aside the hatch door, which read:

 _16G RAM SYSTEM 18382718240 BASIC BYTES FREE._  
 _READY TO LAUNCH EXTERNAL PROGRAM_

"We're counting on you!" added the robot.

 _"Thanks..."_ That was just enough to calm him down a little bit, just enough to make him concentrate. "Now then..."

How would he make a number whose digital numbers was [5]? His brain started making simple sum calculations, but after a while then he thought of the quirks.

Rocky tried to use the number 9's properties in his favor and use it as a wildcard in order to make a number with a digital root of [5]. However, the smallest number he could make with a 9 was 59. (5+9 = 14; 1+4 = [5]), which was way larger than the largest number he could sum: 6+7+8 = 21.

While tracing back a few steps, something clicked on his head. 14 was already a number with a digital root of [5]! He then made a few calculations, trying to figure out what numbers could result in 14 after summing digits, and figured that there were only 6 numbers that fulfilled the conditions.

 **137, 173, 317, 371, 713 and 731.** No matter how hard he tried thinking the twenty combinations: Those were the only ones that had a digital root of [5].

One by one, he grabbed the respective two blue cards and one red card, and sliding them through the card reader.

{1}, {7}, {3} ...

A short beep could be heard, and the hidden compartment slid out of the device, revealing an USB stick with a _"Commander 64 DOS"_ label on it.

* * *

"I've got something!" yelled Rocky, while turning around. He noticed that the water seemed to be filling up the room at an even faster rate, panicking when he noticed that the water level was covering already a bit **more than half of the room**.

It wouldn't take too long before the water was high enough to reach the shower room.

"Is that a USB pen drive?" asked the robotic dog. "Quick, don't hesitate about it, pass it over here!"

The mutt gulped, without swallowing what he was holding in his mouth, and jumped as to throw the stick over the gap between the door and the ceiling. "Catch it!"

Robo grabbed the Universal Serial Bus drive with his metallic fangs, and rushed to the terminal.

"Good job, Wocky! You did gweat!" Congratulated the Labrador while standing on the glass door of the shower room. The mutt did nothing but blush a little, looking away. After plugging the stick onto the USB slot, his non-organic right paw pressed the power button twice. The screen faded to black, then back to a splash screen, reading out _"Commander 64 DOS 2.3.24"_ , followed by a login screen.

"Oh, no. I need to crack the password to log in." Said Robo with a short sigh sound, noticing he wouldn't be able to do any more operations because the water was already covering the terminal. "Well, let's try and brute force it."

With a short bark, the tip of their paws became into five-fingered small hands, something that made Zuma gag a little. However, the chocolate dog blinked in surprise when he saw that the fingers moved in such a fast rate that his vision couldn't keep track of their fingers.

"I'm writing an algorithm that will try all the possible combinations with a pattern." Explained Robo. "It will take a while, but I'm certain it will be able to crack the password."

It was going to take him five minutes or so, a time quite enough for the other two pups to talk about Rocky.

"Can I ask you something, Wocky?" Zuma was holding his paws against the door in an attempt to communicate that he was by Rocky's side. "Is thewe a weason why you awe afwaid of watew?"

He took a few seconds to respond. "I just don't want to remember something that happened. It's horrible."

"If we make it thwough hewe, you'll pwomise you'll tell us about it?" Asked the persistent Zuma.

Rocky looked down, very sad. But he knew that if he talked it out later, maybe they could help him overcome his fears. "Alright. I promise."

"And I pwomise I'll get you out of hewe, dude."

"Deal." Rocky sounded a little more confident and calmed down than before. "But please, try to do it before I get way too wet.

The Labrador snickered for a couple of seconds before he was interrupted by Robo. "I'll try!" He gasped for some air and dived down to the terminal with the robot.

"Open the hatch doow, will you?" Asked the Labrador, with bubbles of air going up to the surface.

"There's a problem, Zuma. The hatch door will automatically open once it detects the room is full of water."

"Shit!" Cursed the Labrador. Hearing that was definitely not what he expected. Zuma kept yelling for a bit, with the sounds being muted from the surface. "Fuck that Y! Rocky will... Rocky will...!" He looked at Rocky for an instant, and approached him, getting to the surface and take an exasperating breath.

"Zuma? What's going on!?" Wondered the mutt in panic. He was starting to cry a bit again.

That was when an idea came from the Labrador's head. He thought of it for a second, but it was just more than enough to conclude that there wasn't any other way to take Rocky out of the room.

"I'm sowwy, Wocky... But the hatch doow won't unlock until the woom is full of watew..." Stated Zuma as he got further and further from the door. "I'm weally sowwy fow this!"

By taking impulse from the wall, he smashed his body against the glass door, causing it to sturdily vibrate.

"ARGH!" Yelled the mutt in pain. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ZUMA!?" He noticed that the water was starting to slowly crack after the second bump, and continuous water jets started squirting through. "ZUMA! ZUMA STOP!" plead the dog in the shower room. "YOU'RE... YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME IF YOU BREAK THE DOOR!"

"Sowwy, Wocky. But it's the only way of pwotecting you." Zuma gave one last impulse, and smashed through the glass door, or at least what became millions of shards of the door.

"NOOO!" yelled the mutt in complete despair. The following second felt like a thousand seconds to him. The water completely engulfed himself, as the fragments that were travelling at some quite speed scratched his now soaked fur, cutting through some lacerations. The water started dying in red as the dog felt like he was going to die, not of the blood loss, but of fear.

His vision started to blur and fade out, but beneath all that darkness, and the reddened water, he saw a shadowy, brown colored figure, embracing his body.  
But that was all what he last saw before passing out.

 _Was he dead? Would he make his way out? Would they make his way out...?  
_ Those were the last questions he made on his mind before completely turning unconscious.

* * *

 **STATUS  
** (According to Team R's perspective)

 **Team M:  
** Marshall (ALIVE), Skye (ALIVE), Tracker (ALIVE)

 **Team R:  
** Rocky (DANGER), Zuma (RISKY), Robo (RISKY)

 **Team C:  
** Chase (?), Rubble (?), Everest (?)

Author's closing notes:

Sorry, but in this fic you won't be able to make any choices. But "maybe" in the future, I'll let you choose. Just... Maybe.

I'm also sorry to say that this will be the last chapter to be added as fast as I can. Since classes start very soon, I won't be able to update them as fast as when I started this. You could expect a weekly update; that's what I'll try to achieve.


	4. Return to Earth

Author's Note:

Alright, time for another group chapter! All parts will be updated simultaneously.

 **I've created a forum for those who are interested in discussing or adding theories, as well as for adding pictures that I've drawn myself :3  
** For the images, please refer to the corresponding "Team C Pictures" thread in the forum.

* * *

 **[M/R/C] RETURN TO EARTH [4]**

There was darkness for a long while, filled with afterimages of what Rocky saw before he last passed out. Clear water that was starting to get a red tint as the glass shards scratched his fur or stuck in a wound, while a shadowy brown figure grabbed him up.

Suddenly, a line of light appeared and got wider and wider. With time, the band grew enough to distinguish other colors and shapes, creating a focused image.

A very bright room was surrounding him, with a cream shaded paint on the upper part of the walls, and a forest green marble tiles on the lower part. The mutt dog couldn't see the floor; instead, he looked at the white, soft clothing which he was lying on. It had a clean smell, like if it was a bedsheet.

His eyes turned on to himself afterwards. His paws were covered in white bandages, alongside with his belly and his back. He couldn't see his face, but upon having the strange feeling of fabric, he noticed that his head was bandaged as well.

Rocky knew after looking after himself that he was alive. His ears perked at the voice that resounded on his back: "Wocky! You've finally awaken!"

The mutt gently moved his head and saw a chocolate Labrador with his orange sunset eyes gazing at him. To his side, a robotic dog sat on a metallic green stool. "We were worried you wouldn't make it."

Rocky tried to reincorporate, but while trying to get up and jump out of the bed he noticed a heavy pain on his left ankle. "Ow!"

The chocolate Labrador named Zuma quickly took over the situation and sat the mutt dog down the bed. "Don't wush, you'we still not fully wecovewed yet."

"What... What happened?" Rocky couldn't stop asking questions. "Where are we...? Did we make it out...?"

Robo made a happy face on his display and nodded. But Rocky couldn't stop asking what exactly happened when he was out. The inorganic dog didn't waste time in providing an explanation. "We realized that the hatch door wouldn't open unless the entire room was full of water, so in order to buy us some time, we had to... Break the shower room door open. It was something reckless, but you wouldn't be able to hold your breath for that long... Right?"

Rocky stayed silent, but Zuma brought some more lines. "The glass shawds huwt you a lot, but I was able to gwab you and hold you until the showew woom was filled with watew. It tuwned out that we just needed the showew woom to be filled up to a cewtain point to open the hatch."

"After opening the hatch, the canal filled with the water, grabbed onto the wooden boxes, and crossed to the door on the other side. We found this infirmary room and found some gauze and band-aids to trait your wounds."

"I see..." The mutt looked down. He seemed happier and calmer than when he was a couple moments ago. "Thank you, Zuma." Rocky felt like his ankle had recovered at least enough to stand, so he did that.

"Can you walk?" Asked the Labrador preoccupied about Rocky's current state.

"Yes, I think I'm fine now. At least, if I hop like a limping bunny." Rocky giggled.

"Still... I think we should wait a bit until youw paw heals completely. It shouldn't take that long, weally." Insisted Zuma. "Wemember ouw pwomise? I think now is the best time fow you to... Fulfill youw pawt."

The mutt gave a sad sigh, looking down. "Okay. Let me take a short while before I tell you." While looking down, he uttered a few cursed words and felt like his muzzle was going to get wet from his tears, but he swallowed those tears and stopped the internal pain from being exposed. Rocky took a deep breath... And started talking.

* * *

 _Rocky started by talking about his life before he started being afraid of getting wet._

 _He used to live in a happy, small family. Two adult humans, one male and one female called Daniel and Katie, and a smaller human named Alex. The family had a fun time going to the park of Adventure Bay. Rocky loved the rainy days; he used to get dirty rolling over at mud pools in the park. He loved the feeling of the mud on his fur, and feel like he was a completely different pup. Plus, he would later enjoy Katie's grooming session, as she used to work in the pet parlor of the city. The soap, the brushing feeling of his fur, and how the refreshing mud got rid of his body, revealing the old, beautiful Rocky._

 _Of course, she_ used _to work there. Someday, on her way to work, she tripped with a step, rolled downstairs... And never got up again._

 _The family was never the same without Katie. They still went to the park to have a walk, but the feelings were different. It was never going to be as happy as before._

 _But one day, something changed. It was a rainy day, and Daniel and Rocky had a walk at the park. The human smiled, and encouraged the dog to roll over in the mud. Rocky smiled as he obeyed, getting muddy and becoming a different puppy again. Then Daniel carried him over to their house. When they entered, the dog couldn't believe what he saw._

 _There was a bucket full of soap bubbles, a towel, and a brush. A grooming bath was ready for him to enjoy. Even though Daniel's hand weren't as soft as Katie's, and his grooming skills weren't as gentle as hers, he still cherished that close moment he got with the adult human._

 _Daniel had decided to rerun the business at the pet parlor, after realizing that his motorbike shop was on the reds for so much time, that it became inviable. With time, his hands got gentler and kinder. At some point, they got even better than Katie's: That's what Rocky thought when he started getting more and more grooming baths._

 _Happiness didn't last for long, however. One fatidic day, Daniel said as always that he would go to the pet parlor to work. And Rocky waited. And waited._

 _Night had already fallen and he didn't come back. That was when Alex suddenly appeared._

 _Alex was a nice kid, and he always wanted to help people, even if he was goofy enough to make things even worse. Despite that, Rocky was in very good terms with the kid. Until that day, the boy decided to do the same his father did to Rocky when Katie was gone._

 _Rocky noticed the smell of soap, which woke him up. He thought that Daniel was back, but the mutt got that wrong. The bath was ready, but the person beside the bathtub was the little boy._

 _"Rocky, it's bath time!", said the boy. This sentence would haunt the mutt until today._

 _Despite the confusion, Rocky approached Alex, who grabbed the dog and carelessly dropped him on the tub.  
The tub was much bigger than the bucket he was used to be groomed with, and more importantly, much _deeper _.  
It was so deep that he couldn't stand, and had to swim to keep afloat. But he couldn't._

 _Alex's hand grabbed the mutt's neck, and pressed it further below to keep the grab tight. His body sank completely, including his head. The mutt suddenly noticed that he couldn't breathe, and eventually started to move in desperation. Even if he tried using brute force, Alex's grip got harder and harder while he tried to keep him still, and apply the soap to him._

 _Rocky had already been 20 seconds without oxygen. He was drowning._

 _With the rest of his strength, he twisted his head, opened his mouth wide, and stabbed his teeth on the kid's arm. Since his instincts kicked in, he used most of his force, all in a matter of three seconds._

 _"OW! Rocky, you bit me! Bad Rocky!" said Alex, letting him go from the pain. His arm started bleeding heavily from his wounds, but that didn't matter to Rocky, as he got out of the bathtub and ran away as fast as he could._

 _He ran outside the bathroom, and jumped over the window next to him. Since it wasn't open due to the rain, the glass shattered and he got some cuts from the broken pieces of the window, but despite that, he kept running._

 _The rain struck hard onto his fur, now with a different feeling. A terrifying one. He was getting wet. He started thinking that him getting wet would cause him to drown again. He eventually found shelter below a trash container, and let himself dry, panting heavily. His body was cold, wet, and bloody. Licking the wounds helped closing and healing them. But even if he was getting dry, he couldn't stand the fact that he would have to get wet again..._

* * *

"And that's how... I became afraid of getting wet."

There was a short silence, but Zuma didn't hold back and hugged the mutt. "Damn... Must have gone thwough a lot of feaw..."

Tears started dropping on the mutt's face, and sobbing. He had to remember that traumatic day once again... But he thought for a second that it would have been much better this way, other than keeping the secret from their teammates, so he eventually got up and started walking. "...I don't think I can run, but I can walk."

Robo, who said nothing during this time, simply smiled: "Let's continue" And pointed out to the metallic door that was not opened.

In front of them was a staircase. At first, Rocky wasn't sure if he was able to climb them safely, but after taking some steps up, the trio started following them slowly. It seemed to take them up a couple or maybe three stories upwards. To the end of the straight stairs was another steel door which was, strangely enough, open. Upon reaching the hallway on the other side of the door, they noticed the different architectonical style right away. Mostly everything was covered in metal with bolts between each metal patch, save for the parquet floor. To the left was a similar looking metal door with the plaque "Crew Quarters 2", but the knob refused to twist at all.

"Locked." Said Zuma. "Let's go to the wight and see if we can continue that way."

Following his voice, they proceeded to follow the path to the right, only to find themselves with a pair of two doors. One was a seemingly elevator door, but the button to call it wasn't functional. Robo suggested that it might not have power.

The trio gazed to the right and spied the door with a rusty plaque reading out "Crew Quarters 1", this door was, like the one after the stairs, already open. Upon entering, a short hallway distributing six doors in pairs of three could be spotted. However, only the one that read out a number "01" was openable. Beneath this door, the trio found a folding bed to the side of a wall and a desk with a computer and a notebook on it. When the trio entered, the computer turned on by its own, or at least was the monitor, as the computer was already on.

A very familiar figure, but not so sympathetic one, appeared in front of the screen.

* * *

"It seems the entire team has cleared the sewer hatch room." Y's voice resonated into the pup's ears. "Congratulations for your successful escape. How are you feeling?"

"Vewy alive. Thanks." Responded Zuma in irony.

"Please, do remember that these are pre-recorded footage. I will not be able to provide you answers to your questions. With that clear, I must say that this is not the outcome I expected. Remember that the X Door will not open unless six of you die." The trio stayed silent, as they continue hearing Y's explanation. "You must be dying to know whatever happened to the other pups. So, I will provide you a light to that question."

A noisy static footage suddenly appeared on the screen, and after a while, a camera feed was being displayed. The heads-up display showed the location of the video camera on the facility: "SECTION D / -45 meters / Sewers". It was the footage that recorded the recent events when they were back in the flooded room. But the room was not flooded yet.

"I'll grab two of these! I might be able to light this up..." Said the mix-breed dog on frame, grabbing some rubble stones and approaching what it looked like a coil fuse. A small spark caused by the contact of the stones lit the fuse, and the frozen pipe that was right above it started melting.

An announcer's voice cued a few seconds later: "Gas current has reached sufficient temperature. Incineration process will begin now according to the protocol."

The three pups didn't react at all, as they perfectly know what was going to happen right after.

What they didn't expect was the footage getting cut with another static footage, followed by a footage that seemed familiar to them. The HUD displayed: "SECTION A / -30 meters / Incinerator". The room was exactly like the one in the footage they had watched on the sewers. However, the situation seemed to have changed drastically. Apart from the fact that the incinerator room was bathed with more light, making it more visible alongside the Cockapoo, on the other room a Chihuahua was strained in some sort of strange chair contraption, and a Dalmatian was holding a weapon, a gun fixed in place, pointing directly at the restrained dog.

"Pull the trigger, and the door to the incinerator... Will automatically open and halt the incineration process the moment it detects the sound of the revolver's discharge." A distorted announcement echoed the room in the footage.

A gunshot flash, followed by a large explosion sound cued right after. Suddenly, another static clip cut the footage happened. The trio were shocked: Marshall had shot Tracker!

The video footage didn't end there, as another clip was displayed with the HUD "SECTION A / -45 meters / EDC ". This time, it was a cylindrical shaped room, with various piles of black dust, and three dogs: A bulldog, a German Shepherd, and a Husky.

The female announcement voice from before cued once again: "Incineration process has been terminated. The exhaustion valves will open now."

Rocky was consternated. "What the... Did we actually put the other ones' lives on the thread?"

The video footage made another static cut for about half a second, and displayed the same room, only a few moments later. The trio were knocked out, close to the door that was opening besides them. The clip made a final noisy transition before showcasing once again the scary figure of Y.

"As you can see, your actions have endangered the lives of others." Said Y in a lower tone. "So, I will give you a chance to bring justice to those who have tried to kill you. Whether if they have succeeded, or not."

"But that was an accident...!" Uttered the robotic dog. "The message won't get through at this rate..."

The screen switched to a window displaying two options. The upper one displayed "Team M", while the lower one displayed "Team C".

"The team names of your newfound enemies should be displayed on the touchscreen monitor." Explained Y. "Choose the team you've decided to... Eliminate. Each team gets one vote. The leader must submit it for the group. You have 23 minutes to send the vote; any team that hasn't voted before the time limit is up shall be penalized two votes. The group with two or more votes will lose, which means that every member of that team... Will be penalized with the injection." The sinister person reiterated the situation by mentioning the following: "Of course, if a pup who is already dead is penalized, the injection will be pointless."

Nobody said anything, as every pup were either completely submerged in a moral dilemma, or shocked by the feeling that they had to try and kill somebody. "Without further ado, let us begin."

 **Image 1. Killing Vote**

* * *

Rocky bit his lip. He had the idea that by spreading out the votes, they would be able to all have one vote each, which was not enough for any of the teams to be executed. " _But how can we spread out the votes without any means of communication?_ ", he thought.

He then grabbed the notebook along with the pen inside the coil that kept the pages of the notebook altogether, and started writing some annotations.

"What are you doing, Rocky?" asked the artificial dog. He quickly replied.

"I'm writing down the possibilities." His left paw started drawing seemingly understandable letters for the other pups, in nine different lines:

 _Vote R | Vote M | Vote C  
C | R | M  
C | R | R  
C | C | M  
C | C | R  
M | R | M  
M | R | R  
M| C | M  
M | C | R_

"Alright. These are all the eight possible results of the voting." His paws pointed out the uppermost and the lowermost lines of what he wrote down. "As you can see here, these two are the only ones that end up with everyone having less than two votes."

"So that means the odds of none of us being killed... Awe 2 in 8?" Asked the chocolate Labrador.

"As for now, yes. But I think we could narrow down the combinations." The mutt stare deeply at both other dogs. "Do you think it's safe to assume that Team M is going to vote for us?" They didn't seem to object. After all, they both saw the footage from early on. "Then I can cross out all possibilities where Team M votes for Team C."

With his left paw, he drew a line stroke over four of the possibilities, leaving out with:

 _Vote R | Vote M | Vote C  
C | R | M  
C | R | R  
M | R | M  
M | R | R  
_

"Which leaves us with Team C... " Rocky took a deep breath. "We have no idea how Team C is going to vote."

"Huh? Why not?" Zuma gave out a confused look to Rocky.

"Because for two reasons." Explained the mix-breed with brown eyes. "One, we don't even know if they are still alive. Two... Once they deduce that Team M is going to vote for us, hopefully, they are pretty much safe, since they can't vote for themselves. In other words..."

"They would never reach two votes." Concluded Robo.

"Correct. So that leaves us with a game of betrayal. Either we trust both teams, and vote for Team C, or betray Team M and vote for them."

"Why awe you considewing voting to Team M, Wocky?" Objected Zuma. "I thought you didn't want to kill anybody!"

The mutt gave out a silent sight before speaking once again. "It's a valid possibility for Team C's point of view. We have no means of communication with them... They can perfectly think that we're trying to kill Team M once more, even if isn't our intention. _That's_ why we have no idea how Team C is going to vote: Because they don't have any idea how are _we_ going to vote."

"And considering that Team C might think that we started all this chain of life and death games, they will probably vote for us." Robo made a deduction.

Zuma disagreed. "But if they voted fow us, they'd kill us!"

"Do you really think they wouldn't be thinking of that?" The inorganic dog started arguing with the organic one who questioned his deduction.

Despite their quarreling, Rocky had already made up his mind.

"...Let's be selfish for a moment. No matter what we choose, we have the same odds of making it through, no matter who we vote for."

"What are you saying with that, Rocky?" "Yeah, what do you mean by that?" Asked both pups.

"I'm trying to say that since what we're going to vote is not going to change how likely we're going to vote, I think it'd be best to act for the greater good and trust Team C. It's the only way for all of us to make it through this killer voting royale."

"So... You'we going to vote Team C?"

"Yes." As he approached the screen, something unthinkable happened. Because irony had to struck sometime in their lives, the mutt tripped with something, although he didn't see exactly with what. Out of his reflexes, he jerked the mouse and even clicked it. By the time Rocky got up, the screen had already changed.

 _Your vote has been recorded.  
Thank you for your participation.  
A reward will be dispensed after the results of the voting.  
Results will be automatically displayed 24 seconds after everyone has voted._

"Dammit." Cursed the mixed breed dog. "Did you see what I clicked at?"

Both dogs shook their heads. Their eyes were so focused at Rocky falling that they didn't even get a glimpse of what did he vote. The rock named dog punched the floor.

"Fuck! Fuck, fuck!" Howled the leader of Team R, as he hoped he had casted the vote he wanted.

At that moment, only Y did know what was the vote he casted.

* * *

 **STATUS**  
(According to Team R's perspective)

 **Team M:  
** Marshall (ALIVE), Skye (ALIVE), Tracker (DEAD)

 **Team R:  
** Rocky (ALIVE), Zuma (ALIVE), Robo (ALIVE)

 **Team C:  
** Chase (?), Rubble (?), Everest (?)


End file.
